Time to dust this thing off

It has been a rocky few months which ended with me missing my exams and being referred to see an ear, nose and throat surgeon. Yes, an actual surgeon. The only time I have ever had surgery was when I was seven, and at that point in medical history, doctors were obsessed with removing tonsils from kids to stop tonsillitis. What they didn’t foresee is that years later these children would have various throat infections and viruses in place of the tonsillitis.

Fortunately, I seem to have ‘grown out of’ (a favourite catchphrase of every doctor I had during my childhood and teens) those and moved on to sinusitis, aka a sinus infection. For those who aren’t familiar with this part of our anatomy (or aren’t a native English speaker) sinuses are nasal cavities in your forehead and cheeks. Most of the time they just sit there doing their job, becoming a little bunged up with a cold or flu, but generally not doing much. That is until you get an infection and anyone who has had sinusitis will tell you that the pain is excruciating.

For over four years I’ve been having these lovely buggers every three to four months, until a few months ago, right about the time I stopped posting here. The frequency stepped up from a few months to having one a month apart. Or maybe it was the same infection, who knows? The second time was much more aggressive and did not respond to antibiotics, which isn’t unusual. It just wouldn’t budge for well over a month, and during that time I was due to sit my exams. I had to call in sick, and I believe I will be resitting them in August, which works out quite nicely. My second term starts this week and the exams for this term are in April/May, so that leaves me plenty of time to revise for my resits. It gives me more time to revise considering I had essays due in and then the holidays this time.

I am hoping for this term to go better in some ways than last term. I don’t want to rule last term as being terrible because it wasn’t. I met some wonderful people and succeeded in reaching many of my goals. I also have to admit that I went into this degree with way too much confidence in my abilities. Some confidence is healthy, however, I forgot to factor in one important thing; there is a very big difference between a History of Art degree and an English Literature degree.

They are two different disciplines and as such require two separate methods of writing essays. While I managed to do exceedingly well in my first essay for Celtic Civilisations, I did a lot worse in my English and Scottish Literature assessments. Primarily because Celtic Civ is much more like History of Art when it comes to essays. So instead of wallowing in self-pity, I have got some books from the University Library and going back to the basics, intending to improve my grades this term. This degree is proving more of a challenge but not an impossible one and well within my abilities.

I had intended to have read at least one book/play for both Literature subjects, however, that idea of course has yet to be put into practice. I’ve lucked out somewhat as both of these courses are starting with poetry straight away. The first thing I need to read is Hamlet which shouldn’t take long to read. I’ve started re-reading Jane Eyre as well, so I shouldn’t fall too far behind. If I can keep up with the reading this term I’ll be happy. I have to rely on e-books this time though rather than my usual paperback, as it seems that carrying too many books around was causing me more pain. I dislike this change as I love to have an actual book to hold and annotate, I can’t draw all over e-books.

I realised last term that I was handling this blog with kid gloves, worried about being seen as being too outspoken or annoying. I should have realised that was not the case and therefore expected more entries on various topics rather than just my adventures at university.

Image Credits: Public Domain Pictures.